Surprise!

I'm back from a weekend in Florida! My apologies for not fully documenting my weekend plans on this blog, as I usually do. My travels this time around were a surprise to my father, so I wanted to keep it hush-hush until I actually arrived at his house! The surprise was a success, and the whole weekend was fabulous. Let me tell you all about it!

I caught an 11:10 a.m. flight out of New York on Friday. My flight took off 45 minutes late, but landed in Tampa 10 minutes early. How does that happen, exactly? How are we really able to make up an hour in the air? If we can fly an hour's worth faster, why do we not always fly that fast? Ugh, I could go on and on with this topic.

Anyway. My flight landed around 2:00, and my mom picked me up. I would have loved to surprise her, too, but I needed transportation to her house! We made the drive up to Weeki Wachee, and I was finally able to see her new house for the first time. My stepdad built it all by himself, and it is adorable! He did a great job. My mom picked the paint colors and decor, and she did a great job too. My favorite part was the adorable colorful tile in the kitchen!

Isn't that tile so sweet?

After the grand tour, we settled in with some Crown Royal and ginger ale (my favorite!) to do some chatting and catching up. That evening, we went out to eat at China Buffet. Mmm, Chinese food and sushi, and lots of it! After dinner we went for a walk around their neighborhood, where I was treated to sights not often seen in Manhattan, like cows and peacocks and such. It was all so quiet and peaceful.

Oh, hello.

Saturday morning was an early one. I got up to go to my mom's Jazzercise class with her, including her Personal Touch class before the regular class. It was a great time, and an even better workout! I'm still a little sore! After Jazzercise we did a little shopping, then headed home for lunch before going out for a little more shopping.

That evening my sister came up to join us for dinner. My mom made beef stroganoff, which was delicious! I haven't had that in years. It was followed up by cheesecake for dessert, which was also rather tasty. After dinner, Heather and I gave Mom her Mother's Day gift a little early, then it was time to head down to St. Pete. It was a great visit with my mom!

With Mom and Heather

Heather and I made it to St. Pete a little after 10:00 p.m. on Saturday night. My dad was just watching TV in the family room, so Heather went in ahead of me and said, "Hi! I brought you a present!" and then I made my entrance! He was very surprised, and very happy. It was really nice!

Sunday morning I got up and drove my dad to work, so I could use his car for a few quick errands. Then I went back home to get ready for the rest of the day before returning to the mall to pick Dad up. From there we went straight to his choir concert at First Presbyterian. It was great to hear him sing! The concert was really lovely.

After the concert we stopped back at the house to grab a quick sandwich then it was back in the car to make the drive to the Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center for the weekend's main attraction: "Fiddler on the Roof," featuring the amazing Topol in his signature role as Tevye. Heather and I bought Dad tickets to the show as an early Father's Day gift, so I thought it would be a special treat (both for Dad AND for me!) if I joined them. Unfortunately, the traffic was not so excited about our plans. We just crawled along basically the whole way across the bridge, which made us late. We had to stand outside the theater for the opening number before we could be seated. Boo!

The rest of the show, however, was excellent. Topol was amazing, and I loved every minute of the show. I had never seen it live before, so it was a real treat! And I came right home and added the movie version to our Netflix queue, because I want to see it again!

With Dad and Heather after the show

After the show, we sat in more traffic to get out of there but then were finally on our way home. We decided to stop at Steak 'N Shake for some late-night dining, because we were all starving! Ah, the old stomping grounds. It was a good night!

Monday, Heather had the day off from work, so we made it a beach day. We spent the day at Undertow on St. Pete Beach, sipping fruity beverages, enjoying the view from Undertow's upper sun deck, and sharing some girl talk. We spent a little bit of time down by the water (beautiful), then had lunch before we had to leave. It was sooo nice. I didn't want it to end!

Heather admiring the view from Undertow's upper deck, where we spent our afternoon

Down by the water

After leaving the beach, we had to go straight to the airport so I could catch my 6:30 p.m. flight. Sigh. We got back to New York a little late, then I had kind of a hassle with the bus back to Manhattan. And of course, it was chilly and raining. What else is new? It was pretty tough to stand there in the rain waiting for the bus, knowing that just a few hours earlier I was sipping rum runners on the beach. Ah well, this is the life I chose, I guess.

You may be wondering what Eric was up to while I was gone. He and Achilles had a nice weekend, from what I hear. Achilles is still setting himself free from his crate, and apparently has figured out how to get up on the kitchen counter. So that's something new. And Eric had a nice weekend of video games, movies, and even a golf festival at Chelsea Piers, where he got to have his picture taken with the U.S. Open trophy. He was pretty excited about that!

Doesn't he look handsome? He looks like he was made to hold that trophy, doesn't he?

And, since Eric is a wonderful husband, he cleaned up the apartment very nicely before my return. He's so sweet!

And that was my weekend. I had so much fun. I miss all of you Florida people already!